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    Voyager
    Voyager
    Voyager
    Ebook92 pages44 minutes

    Voyager

    By Srikanth Reddy

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    About this ebook

    Srikanth Reddy’s second book of poetry probes this world’s cosmological relation to the plurality of all possible worlds. Drawing its name from the spacecraft currently departing our solar system on an embassy to the beyond, Voyager unfolds as three books within a book and culminates in a chilling Dantean allegory of leadership and its failure in the cause of humanity. At the heart of this volume lies the historical figure of Kurt Waldheim—Secretary-General of the U.N. from 1972-81 and former intelligence officer in Hitler’s Wehrmacht—who once served as a spokesman for humanity while remaining silent about his role in the collective atrocities of our era. Resurrecting this complex figure, Reddy’s universal voyager explores the garden of forking paths hidden within every totalizing dream of identity.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherUniversity of California Press
    Release dateFeb 7, 2011
    ISBN9780520948266
    Voyager
    Author

    Srikanth Reddy

    Srikanth Reddy is Assistant Professor of English at the University of Chicago and the author of a previous collection of poetry, Facts for Visitors.

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      Book preview

      Voyager - Srikanth Reddy

      SRIKANTH REDDY

      Voyager

              University of California Press  Berkeley  Los Angeles  London

      This project is supported in part by an award

      from the National Endowment for the Arts.

      University of California Press, one of the most distinguished university presses in the United States, enriches lives around the world by advancing scholarship in the humanities, social sciences, and natural sciences. Its activities are supported by the UC Press Foundation and by philanthropic contributions from individuals and institutions. For more information, visit www.ucpress.edu.

      University of California Press

      Berkeley and Los Angeles, California

      University of California Press, Ltd.

      London, England

      © 2011 by The Regents of the University of California

      For acknowledgments of previous publication, see page 129.

      LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA

      Reddy, Srikanth, 1973—.

          Voyager / Srikanth Reddy.

               p.    cm.—(New California poetry ; 31)

          ISBN 978-0-520-26885-2 (pbk. : alk. paper)

          1. Waldheim, Kurt—Poetry. I. Title.

           PS3618.E427V69 2011

           811'.6—dc22                                             2010018492

      Manufactured in the United States of America

      20  19  18  17  16  15  14  13  12  11

      10  9  8  7  6  5  4  3  2  1

      The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of ANSI/NISO Z39.48–1992 (R 1997) (Permanence of Paper).

      For my father

      Morti li morti e i vivi parean vivi

      PURGATORIO 12.67

      Contents

      Book One

      Book Two

      Book Three

      Epilogues

      Acknowledgments

      BOOK ONE

      The world is the world.

      To deny it is to break with reason.

      Nevertheless it would be reasonable to question the affair.

      The speaker studies the world to determine the extent of his troubles.

      He studies the night overhead.

      He says therefore.

      He says venerable art.

      To believe in the world, a person has to quiet thinking.

      The dead do not cease in the grave.

      The world is water falling on a stone.

      Some serve the state.

      Some an interminable kingdom.

      In the end he would have no objection to the study of nations.

      Nations occur.

      For a time, Finland.

      Likewise, Namibia.

      The Namibian people journey through the story of Namibia.

      As a footnote, the Soviet Union is an interesting case.

      He also will one day collapse.

      A world is a world is a world.

      Even so the world has to go on.

      To complain about love in front of the famous Chagall window does not make a difference.

      He shall be placed in the first circle.

      The Chinese province of Sichuan continues to change form.

      Subject the globe to assembly.

      Mark in the empire thus.

      [Figure 1].

      In his mind he views a dark glass sea.

      Before diving in he talks of dialectical space.

      Jerusalem. Jerusalem indeed.

      Is is.

      There is no distinction between ideology and image.

      One.

      He records his name on a gold medallion.

      Two.

      The philosopher must say is.

      The world is legion.

      The self is a suffering form.

      Is is.

      Waves rise and fall, but the sea remains.

      Open the box.

      No.

      The box is a brief history of post-war Europe.

      Opening it would be against the interests of the authorities.

      They could bring influence to

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